Film / Pumzi

Edit Locked

Pumzi is a 2009 Kenyan science fiction short film directed by Wanuri Kahiu, starring Kudzani Moswela.The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where water is scarce and humanity must stay underground for it's own survival. The main character Asha, a museum curator, receives a box of soil in which she plants an old seed. The seed germinates, and Asha asks the Maitu Council permission to investigate life outside. The Council denies her, prompting Asha to escape and proceed with the search on her own.

This film provides examples of:

Bald Women: Nobody, man or woman, seems to let their hair grow out in this future.

Bitter Sweet Ending: Asha dies of exhaustion and dehydration trying to revive nature in the Outside. However, the seed she planted sprouts and is implied to have expanded into a forest by the last images of the movie.

The Evils of Free Will: It's implied that suppressing free will is necessary in order to create a system of total self sufficiency.

World of Silence: No one is allowed to dream and presenting new ideas is discouraged. Within minutes of Asha requesting an investigation of the Outside, the authorities come in and sack her museum. A lack of curiosity and spirit is also denoted by the lack of visitors in said museum. The surrounding objects are probably what enticed Asha's free spirit, while the other citizens have not been exposed to elements of the Outside as much.

World War III: This version is a water war that took place 35 years before the film.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy